Eight-Penny News

by Ted Cushman
The Los Angeles earthquake
of January 1994 is in the
record books as the most costly
natural disaster in U.S. history.
Now, experts involved
in evaluating the damage say
much of the destruction to
single-family and multifamily
residences could have been
prevented simply by the proper
use of structural wood panels
— plywood and oriented
strand board (OSB).
An American Plywood
Association (APA) report on
the quake says that some twoand
three-story wood-frame
buildings that did not have
structural panel bracing in the
exterior walls suffered severe
damage in the quake.
Los Angeles area engineer
John Aldenado is busy these
days with repair work on
quake-damaged structures.
"I'm speccing a lot of plywood,"
he said. "A lot of
these buildings had nothing
for sheathing but chicken
wire